May 01, 2008

It’s Got A Good Beat, And You Can Dance To It.

That old catchphrase from American Bandstand has been running through my mind a lot lately, for two reasons:

1) Ella has become quite the dancer. When she hears the mere hint of music, she starts to do that dance thing that babies do automatically, but she adds her own flair. She shimmies her little shoulders, moves her arms around (occasionally like she’s doing a rumba or something), twirls a little, at times some tummy tapping, some Riverdance-esque foot action, and from time to time she even adds some funky head movements (a sort of “dance like an Egyptian” thing.)

But I became a little concerned one day when she was at my house, and a car drove down the street. You know the kind I mean. It announces its presence to the neighborhood and surrounding territories by shaking the walls and rattling the windows. If there is any actual music playing you can’t tell it, due to those enormously heavy bass sound waves that are penetrating everyone and everything that isn’t shielded by lead or something. At the second “beat” (wave), Ella was dancing. My heart broke a little. And then I realized my new mission: that I need to find some music, good music - music that has a good beat and you can dance to it - to expose Ella to for our dances together. So far we’ve been dancing to most of Yo Yo Ma’s “Obrigado Brazil,” Bob James, and some Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass, with a little bit of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music thrown in. It’s been fun rediscovering some of my old vinyl and dusting off long forgotten CDs. (There’s a whole generation of music on cassette tape that is lost, I fear. I have no way to listen to it, and it will be too expensive to replace it all.) The icing on the cake is that Ella seems to appreciate all of it.

2) I’ve been working on this wrap.

Pattern: Button-up Shrug, in Classic Elite’s “Make It Modern.”Determined to work from my stash, I chose some humble Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50/50 cotton/acrylic blend) in taupe. I’ve been really happy with the weight, the drape, and how the stitches look. And it was such a happy discovery that the stitch pattern is so nice and rhythmical, I can even knit this while listening and talking to other people. As I began to learn the stitch pattern, I kept thinking that, “It’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it.” A seven stitch pattern with a four row repeat, the wrap practically swirls off the needles.

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It’s Got A Good Beat, And You Can Dance To It.

That old catchphrase from American Bandstand has been running through my mind a lot lately, for two reasons:

1) Ella has become quite the dancer. When she hears the mere hint of music, she starts to do that dance thing that babies do automatically, but she adds her own flair. She shimmies her little shoulders, moves her arms around (occasionally like she’s doing a rumba or something), twirls a little, at times some tummy tapping, some Riverdance-esque foot action, and from time to time she even adds some funky head movements (a sort of “dance like an Egyptian” thing.)

But I became a little concerned one day when she was at my house, and a car drove down the street. You know the kind I mean. It announces its presence to the neighborhood and surrounding territories by shaking the walls and rattling the windows. If there is any actual music playing you can’t tell it, due to those enormously heavy bass sound waves that are penetrating everyone and everything that isn’t shielded by lead or something. At the second “beat” (wave), Ella was dancing. My heart broke a little. And then I realized my new mission: that I need to find some music, good music - music that has a good beat and you can dance to it - to expose Ella to for our dances together. So far we’ve been dancing to most of Yo Yo Ma’s “Obrigado Brazil,” Bob James, and some Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass, with a little bit of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music thrown in. It’s been fun rediscovering some of my old vinyl and dusting off long forgotten CDs. (There’s a whole generation of music on cassette tape that is lost, I fear. I have no way to listen to it, and it will be too expensive to replace it all.) The icing on the cake is that Ella seems to appreciate all of it.

2) I’ve been working on this wrap.

Pattern: Button-up Shrug, in Classic Elite’s “Make It Modern.”Determined to work from my stash, I chose some humble Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50/50 cotton/acrylic blend) in taupe. I’ve been really happy with the weight, the drape, and how the stitches look. And it was such a happy discovery that the stitch pattern is so nice and rhythmical, I can even knit this while listening and talking to other people. As I began to learn the stitch pattern, I kept thinking that, “It’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it.” A seven stitch pattern with a four row repeat, the wrap practically swirls off the needles.